Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Unique... but not really

Louisiana funds its public defenders in a way that no other state in
the country does. The bulk of the public defenders funding comes from
court fees assessed on defendants when they plead guilty or lose a case.

Most of these fees come from people admitting to traffic violations.
And far fewer traffic tickets are being written in Louisiana than just a
few years ago.

Local law enforcement is also steering more people toward community
service and drug rehabilitation programs, instead of going through the
court system. Orleans Public Defender Derwyn Bunton said he supports
these diversion programs, but it means less money for his office.

Fewer traffic violations. Small time drug offenses being steered away from the punitive criminal track. These are desirable outcomes. They shouldn't doom the system.

As the report noted, from 2012 to 2014 African
Americans accounted for “85 percent of vehicle stops, 90 percent of
citations, and 93 percent of arrests made by FPD officers, despite
comprising only 67 percent of Ferguson’s population.” Tickets mean money
for the city — in 2013, municipal court fines were Ferguson’s second
highest source, the bulk of which were leveled against African
Americans.

“Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the
City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs,” the report
stated. “This emphasis on revenue has compromised the
institutional character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to
a pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its
municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process
concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson
community.”

So.. not optimal there, or here, or in a lot of places, actually. So, in a very narrow Louisiana specific sense, some offices have a budget problem. But, in a wider sense, the whole system has a moral corruption problem.